Kent Law School

The Research Excellence Framework also assesses the impact that the research has outside academia. The case studies below are a selection of the research submitted by Kent Law School.

Insolvency and consumer
credit

Professor Iain
Ramsay

Iain Ramsay’s research into personal
insolvency and regulation of consumer
credit is being employed to create new
policies around the world. In particular,
in 2013, Ramsay co-authored a World
Bank report on personal insolvency
that has been influential in reform
discussions in countries including Brazil,
Colombia, South Africa and India.

His insights provide a platform from
which to rethink regulatory frameworks
that are sensitive to the specific needs
of demographic groups, and to the kinds
of vested interests that might serve to
distort or undermine regulatory goals.

A number of UK organisations and
committees (including the Select
Committee on Business, Innovation and
Skills, and Office of Fair Trading) have
drawn on Ramsay’s research. He has
also advised NGOs and contributed to
a working group for the United Nations
Guidelines on Consumer Protection.

Developing environmental law

Professor William Howarth

Despite the clear need for sustainable
management of our seas, rivers and
wetlands, creating a legal framework
that can deliver this in practice is an
ongoing challenge. Much of William
Howarth’s work challenges the
traditional legal approach, which
tends to focus on high-profile
industrial pollution and criminalising
those who contravene the law.
Instead, he argues for ‘modernisation’
with an increased emphasis on the
cumulative impact of individual
lifestyles, as well as the idea of
‘purposiveness’ – using legislation
to achieve specified environmental
standards.

Howarth’s research has been
influential within the UK’s Department
for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs (DEFRA). Most notably, it has
contributed towards moves to create
a more proportionate and effective
enforcement system in England and
Wales.

Housing reform

Dr Helen Carr

Building on prior work for the Law
Commission, Helen Carr’s research
provided the inspiration for major
reforms in Welsh housing tenure.
Working in collaboration with Professor
Dave Cowan (University of Bristol) and
Professor Caroline Hunter (University of
York), the research provided evidence,
inspiration and a legal framework for the
new Housing Bill now in place.

Proposals included simplification,
uniformity across tenures, and avoiding
the diverse layers of housing tenure. It
is thought the legislation could affect
the lives of approximately half a million
tenants and landlords.

Equality in
development policy

Dr Kate
Bedford

Kate Bedford’s work has highlighted
the limitations of some development
policies that address gender and
sexuality. For instance, her research
raises concerns about recent moves
toward development policies that
invoke sharing, loving partnerships
between men and women. The
findings show that these policies
can also have the unintended effect
of excluding individuals who do not
fit this description.

Bedford’s work in partnership
with NGOs has shown that
sexuality is of greater significance
to development practice than was
previously assumed. Research
commissioned by the United
Nations Research Institute for
Social Development (UNRISD)
enabled her to challenge
conventional wisdom and
stimulate debate within large
development organisations.

The Feminist Judgments Project

Professor
Rosemary Hunter

The Feminist Judgments Project (FJP)
put theory into practice by engaging
in a real-world exercise of writing
feminist judgments for leading cases
in English law. In doing so, the research
demonstrated the extent to which
women’s experiences and concerns
continue to be poorly reflected in law.

The FJP was a highly collaborative
project, with Rosemary Hunter’s research
playing a major role in shaping it. The
research generated wide interest among
judges, legal professionals, NGOs,
journalists and the wider public. It has
also been used in higher education to
provoke students to think critically about
judicial decision-making.